With fall rolling along and a new set of people to try to impress with my baking skills (my new front end engineering classmates), it was time to head back in the kitchen and bake like crazy. Thanks to a brief break from our hectic coding schedules on Thursday, I was able to generate insane amounts of sugar to compliment all the caffeine we were ingesting to help us all work on our tachycardias.
Would my decision to forgo the traditional autumnal pumpkin spice pay off, or would my new computer savvy classmates call me a n00b and write me off?
S'mores Cookies
Adapted from The Brown Eyed Baker
Servings: 28-36 cookies
Time: 5 hours (inactive for 4)
So much goodness
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 5-6 full sized) 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp kosher salt 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup light brown sugar 1 egg 2 tbsp honey 1 tbsp vanilla extract 1 heaping cup miniature marshmallows 1 heaping cup milk chocolate chips Additional milk chocolate and marshmallows for topping (optional)
Have you ever thought to yourself "There's now possible way cookie dough could be any better."? Well you were wrong.
Whisk the flour, graham cracker, baking soda, and salt together in a medium sized bowl.
Cream the butter and both sugars together in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes at medium speed). Be sure to scrape down the sides halfway through.
Add in the egg, honey, and vanilla until well combined.
Mix the dry ingredients in with the butter until the cookie dough forms.
Stir in the chocolate chips and marshmallows until evenly distributed.
Roll the dough into a large ball, wrap tightly in saran wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours.
Feel like a kid on Christmas eve as you wait for those four hours to pass.
Preheat the oven to 325 F.
Roll up the dough into ~ 1-2 tbsp sized balls and place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper about one inch apart. Be careful not to have too much marshmallow per ball as this can lead to some weird looking cookies once the marshmallows melt.
Bake for 14-18 minutes until the edges start to set and the cookies brown.
Keep on the baking sheet and let cool on wire racks for 10 minutes. Then use a spatula to transfer them to the wire racks directly to finish cooling.
If you wish, top with melted milk chocolate chips (microwave for 15-30 seconds at a time until smooth) and a marshmallow. Let set in the fridge for 30 minutes.
I highly recommend the super s'mores variety for minimal extra effort.
There was so much to love about these cookies, which I will place firmly toward the top of all cookies that I have made. The cookie base itself is a hybrid of s'mores and the classic Nestle Tollhouse cookie recipe with graham cracker crumbs taking the place of some of the flour and marshmallows fighting the chocolate chips for interior real estate. Speaking of the marshmallows, aside from adding some amazing gooeyness, they also caramelized nicely in the oven leading to additional unexpected deliciousness (but do be careful not to have too many marshmallows per cookie or they will look like a mess). While I made two versions, one with additional s'mores topping and one without, I would definitely recommend really hammering home all the campfire appeal with the additional toppings. Without much extra effort from making standard chocolate chip cookies (I know melting chocolate in the microwave seems pretty taxing), you can produce a treat that holds its own against just about anything else and brings you back to your childhood.
Hiding the non chocolate covered ones on the bottom.
When your dessert isn't pretty, you should at least help it out by cutting it with a knife... or shrinking it thanks to combining it with a picture of the greatest twinkie scientist ever.
When I was a kid, Egon Spengler was my hero. He was without a doubt the greatest Ghostbuster in all the land. Despite all the fancy PhDs around, everyone knew he was the brains behind the operation (and the awesome proton packs). To put it simply, he was everything my bespectacled young self wanted to be when I grew up (plus I was pretty sure there was at least an 80% chance I'd end up looking like him). As I got older, I realized it wasn't just Egon who I was a massive fan of, but the man behind the glasses, Harold Ramis. From Caddyshack to Stripes and Groundhog Day, the comedic genius excelled both in front of and behind the camera and shaped several generations' senses of humor.
Doe. Ray. Egon!
I may not have ended up looking exactly like Egon (thanks facial hair and changing glasses trends!), but I definitely still strive to be even half the fake scientist he was (maybe if I drilled a hole in my head...). My immediate reaction to seeing my Facebook feed flooded with Ghostbusters pictures was "Dear God, don't be Egon!", but after calming down, I knew I had to honor him the best way I knew how- with delicious foodstuffs.
Now presenting The Twinkie of Psychokinetic Energy & Refreshing Ecto Cooler!
Pretty much all science can be explained with twinkies if you're enough of a bad ass.
Cake 1 16 oz. box pound cake mix 4 egg whites 2/3 cup water Half package instant vanilla pudding (about 2.5 oz) Filling 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened 1-3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted 1 8 ox container cool whip, thawed A healthy spoonful of marshmallow fluff 1 tbsp vanilla extract
I was so hopeful that the molds had worked out given how they looked before removal.
Preheat the oven to 325 F.
Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment at high speed until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
Combine the pound cake mix, water and instant vanilla pudding together at medium speed with the paddle attachment until just incorporated into a batter.
Gently fold in the egg whites.
If you're fancy, put your batter about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way full into a cream canoe or mini loaf pan. If you're not, MacGyver some molds. Do this by folding a 12" square piece of aluminum foil twice and then rolling it around a spice bottle until you have somewhat of a twinkie shape. Spray with non-stick cooking spray and evenly distribute your batter. Pack the molds together in a large baking pan.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the cakes are become golden and stand up to the tried and true toothpick test.
While the cake is baking, make the filling by beating all the ingredients together in a stand mixer with the whisk until somewhat smooth (it doesn't need to be too pretty since it'll be hidden). Be sure to scrap often with a spatula because that marshmallow fluff isn't gonna make this easy.
Carefully remove the cakes from their molds and let cool on wire racks.
Once the cakes are completely cooled, create openings 3-4 in the bottoms of each (if yours are pretty enough to determine what the bottom is) by wiggling a toothpick around. Then add the filling using a piping bag with a large opening decorating tip (this is key, or it will not come out at all). Fill until almost, but not quite bursting.
Enjoy the single tastiest twinkie you've ever had and be glad that your taste buds aren't superficial.
Once you determine which horribly mangled side is the bottom, fill away!
The twinkies definitely weren't pretty (splurge and get a fancy pan for them), but they were surprisingly the tastiest ones I had ever had. I'm normally not a huge fan of pound cake, but the added pudding mix really took the fantastically bouncy cake to another level. My only recommendation would be to make sure your twinkies are bursting with as much psychokinetic energy as possible because the marshmallow, cream cheese, whipped cream and sugar combo is perfect for making you wish any dessert was "35 feet long, weighing approximately 600 pounds". Ecto Cooler
1 healthy spoonful Country Time powdered lemonade mix 1 3/4 cup sugar
Blue and green food coloring
Water to fill
Note: you can replace half of all orange with tangerine juice/powder
I bought a fancy pitcher just for this. I'm so glad it could properly showcase the ecto cooler beauty...
Mix all the ingredients together in a 1 gallon pitcher.
Fill to near the top with water.
Stir well.
Let sit in your fridge for over a week until even your freezer smells like delightful fruit candy.
If you can name what color it is, then you didn't do it right.
I never thought Ecto Cooler was the finest Hi-C flavor growing up, but, dammit, I drank a lot of it because Slimer was on the cover and we all know cartoons give the best nutritional advice. The concoction of indeterminate color was everything my sugar addled brain remembers from my youth. A strong orangey hit is just enough to make you forget that its basically pure sugar. I highly recommend turning this into mimosas for full circle enjoyment as an adult.
"This magnificent feast here represents the last of the petty cash."
Since my guests probably would've left if I only gave them sugar cakes with diabetes juice to wash it down, our massive feast was rounded out in to a full blown meal. Laura provided her guacamole that made me ask "Are you a God?", and Danielle put my deformed twinkies to shame with her delicious Pinterest-worthy Stay Puft Marshmallow men (and a bag of exploded ones to make me feel better). Maconda and Sacha supplied Chinese takeout (aka late night Ghostbuster fuel), and Megan brought baby shower cupcakes all the way from College Station to help give everything a slightly creepy paranormal feel.
Homemade goodness. Danielle's Stay Puft Marshmallow Men win prettiest honors, but Laura's guac (in honor of Slimer) always wins tastiest (until I hate myself for ingesting the entire tub).
A Ghostbusters meal wouldn't be complete without Chinese takeout. We also had a special guest appearance by baby (Oscar) shower cupcakes all the way from College Station compliments of Megan.
This definitely was a glorious Sunday afternoon worthy of the brilliant stranger who has somehow influenced me since I was three. One final time: Here's to the man who taught me that it was ok to be a nerd with a strange sense of humor and that twinkies were an essential scientific unit of measurement!
Even this painting isn't enough to pay proper tribute to Harold Ramis, but having something like this with my future family in it is a life goal.
And now, I leave you with the wisdom of the world's greatest slacker/smart-ass: Russell Ziskey. May we all have a teacher that dedicated in our lives.
To end our Easter Bakeathon, I decided to give myself the most difficult culinary challenge yet; I was going to attempt to make peeps tasty. For years, I thought the only thing peeps were good for was watching them blow up in the microwave, but I was ready to change the cultural mindset on the marshmallowy flightless birds. The obvious choice was to convert them into the most perfect use of the marshmallow- the S'more.
Melt the milk chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave in 30 second intervals at medium power.
Place the peeps on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.
Pour the melted chocolate over the peeps to coat well.
Be somewhat sad and disappointing that the peeps aren't melting from the chocolate.
Crush up the graham crackers and sprinkle them over the chocolate.
Let set in the fridge for at least half an hour.
Taunting the peep.
Much like peeps themselves, the process of making s'mores peeps is disgusting.
Surprisingly delicious
As has been learned in the past, covering something in chocolate makes it infinitely more amazing (see: Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cookies and Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Cookies). The crunchy graham cracker sprinkles and hardened chocolate form a magnificent shell for our inner peepy marshmallowness (and it helps cover up the weird sugar coating that is the standard peep's main downfall). Our s'mores inspired treat was shocking affirmation that peeps weren't in fact a horrible abomination. Following our epic night of baking, it was time to unwind with some microwave peep fights.
I've determined all major fight scenes should be scored to Seal's "Kiss from a Rose".
